Thursday, April 03, 2008

RBC reports that Tighter credit conditions to damp household and business spendingInitial signs of this credit contraction were evident in the senior loans' officer surveys of 2007 and the trend accelerated in early 2008. The percentage of institutions indicating that they had tightened lending standards for commercial and industrial loans jumped to about one-third early this year from less than one-quarter in late 2007, a marked increase from the loose lending standards reported in the period from 2003 to 2006.The tightening in standards for commercial real estate loans was much more dramatic, with 80% reporting tighter conditions in early 2008, up from 50% in late 2007.

On the household side, the terms for mortgages were also aggressively tightened even for prime mortgages  more than one-half of respondents indicated that loans were harder to come by. For non-traditional and sub-prime mortgages, about three-quarters of lending institutions indicated tighter lending practices.